Kidneys, just like any other major organ, are crucial to lead a balanced life. Kidneys are responsible for cleansing the blood, and to make urine, besides cleaning the impurities that are thrown in the process.

With new-age technology, the world of medicine has brought about some remarkable methods to treat kidney cancer. However, intervention is entirely dependent on the stage of cancer that one is in. There are four stages in kidney cancer, where in stage 1, the size of the tumor is less than seven centimetres and it is very well contained within the kidney. In stage 2, the tumor has grown above seven centimetres and is largely within the kidney. It is only in stage 3 and 4 that the tumor starts to spread. In stage 3, it is largely restricted to the nearby lymph nodes and possibly the nearest blood vessel, but in stage 4, it spreads to other organs like the liver or pancreas and also to the adrenal glands. The stages and treatment for kidney cancer are as follows:

Targeted therapy for kidney cancer
Innumerable research has gone into identifying and learning the molecular and genetic changes in the cell that causes kidney cancer. This is a treatment option that is known to work in cases where even chemotherapy has failed to cure the cancer. The targeted medicines administered by your oncologist work by blocking the growth of new blood vessels that nourishes the cancer by allowing them to grow and survive. This treatment option comes with its side effects but has seen a lot success rare recently. Some of the medications used are Sorafenib, Sunitnib, Temsirolimus, Everolimus, etc.

Immunotherapy for kidney cancer
One of the crucial role played by the immune system is its ability to not to attack normal cells in the body. This is possible through checkpoints where the protein cells are turned on and off (accordingly) to start an immune response. Kidney cancer cells, unfortunately, use these checkpoints to ensure that it is not attacked by the immune system. This kind of a treatment specifically targets the proteins found in checkpoints and restores the ability of the immune system to fight against cancer. Some of the medications used in TB case are Pembrolizumab, Nivolumab, Avelumab, Ipilimumab, etc.

Chemotherapy for kidney cancer
This is a popular intervention where anti-cancer medicines are given into a vein (IV). They reach all parts of the body and could be useful in cases where the cancer has already spread to other areas beyond the kidney.

To summarise, every treatment has its purpose and only your doctor who can advise which one is right for you. However, it is imperative to understand how to handle the side effects of the above-mentioned treatments because every kind of medicine has its unique side effects which could be difficult to deal with. It is also highly recommended that you also get counselling to handle the stress which could again have further side effects on your body. These are the different stages and treatment for kidney cancer.